it meant conforming to strict jewish laws. >> ( dramatized ): this is the law, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the living creature that may be eaten, and the living creature that may not be eaten. >> there are several issues involved here. one is the notion of the dietary laws, the eating restrictions that would have obtained for eang ctain kinds of food if one was an observant jew; also with whom one could eat. >> narrator: in paul's view, it was now possible to allow gentiles who didn't observe all the jewish food laws to participate in the communal meals of the movement. >> but because it's at a meal, it also runs headlong into some jewish sensitivities about what kind of foods you can eat and with whom you can eat. >> narrator: dietary laws were not the only regulations that marked jewish identity. >> ( dramatized ): every male among you shall be circumcised, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. >> of course, the major issues in converting to judaism for a gentile, for a non-jew, is that one must, if a male, become circum